Melene Rossouw, committed to promoting women’s leadership in South Africa

Melene Rossouw is a South African human rights activist and a lawyer. She is committed to promoting gender equality. In 2017, she co-founded « Women Lead Movement », an organisation that aims to empower and inspire women to lead social change in their communities through human rights and leadership training programs.

Melene Rossouw is a lawyer by profession with a rich, diverse and inspiring background.  She graduated from the University of the Western Cape with a Bachelor of Laws in 2003 and a Master of Laws in 2012. In 2009, she worked as a legal researcher at the Constitutional Court of South Africa and the Western Cape High Court. In 2010, she served in the South African Presidency and a year later became spokesperson for the country’s Minister of Tourism. In 2014, she became special advisor to the Minister of Sport. 

Committed to human rights and passionate about community development, she co-founded in 2017 « Women Lead Movement », a non-governmental organisation that promotes women’s leadership in driving change within communities in South Africa. The NGO, of which she is the Executive Director, aims to foster gender equality at the community level and active and participatory citizenship. Her goal being « to use her skills and experience to lead social, political and economic empowerment initiatives in local communities, with the aim of educating and empowering women and girls to lead social change at the local level and to advocate for women’s rights and gender equality, » she says in her biography.

Social impact and recognition

The NGO conducts, in particular mentoring programs for young rural women, intervention programs for young people in rural areas, training in human rights and democracy, and community dialogue. She also sensitises young people to the scourge of gender-based violence and conducts capacity building workshops on topics such as gender inequality and gender-based violence.

The organisation has now impacted 2000 women and girls through its programs. In 2020, the organization opened an office in Madagascar to expand its pan-African vision of the movement.

Because of her civic engagement, Melène Rossouw was selected in 2018 by the Obama Foundation as an « Obama Leader in Africa ». In 2019, she was also selected as a Mandela Washington Fellow by the US State Department and as a Goodwill Ambassador for the World Youth Peace Summit by the International Commission on Human Rights.

In 2020, she was listed as one of the « 100 Most Influential Young Africans » in the leadership category during the Africa youth Awards.